Toyota Rejects Ford Claim About the World’s Best-Selling Car

Toyota Motor Corp. (NYSE: TM) announced that the Ford Motor Co. (NYSE: F) claim that its Focus was the best-selling car in the world last year is false. This sets up a battle over how the statistics are taken. Toyota used research firm Polk. Maybe Polk’s numbers got its wrong. According to Reuters:

Toyota Motor Corp said on Wednesday its Corolla was the world’s top selling car of 2012, contradicting rival Ford (F.N) which claimed top spot for its Focus model.

Ford said on Tuesday it sold 1.02 million Focus compact cars last year, citing data from automotive consulting firm Polk.

It did not detail Corolla sales in a press release on its website, but various media reports have cited the U.S. carmaker as saying Toyota sold 872,774 Corollas last year.

Toyota’s Tokyo-based spokesman Ryo Sakai said the Japanese carmaker sold 1.16 million Corollas in 2012 and that “Toyota still sees the Corolla as the world’s most popular car”.